Despite not being able to come remotely close to filling demand for the 6800 …

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Ah, nothing like some "previews" to get you all hot and excited for something you'll be lucky to be able to buy in a few months. Such is the strategy of NVIDIA, who despite not being able to come remotely close to filling demand for the 6800 Ultra or GT models, has launched additional cards even though these new cards are not yet shipping. Indeed, not only are they not shipping, but the review sites don't even have cards to test. But hey, why not grab the NVIDIA PDF and write up the company's PR as a "preview?" The PDF is here. When will this paper launch circus stop?

Known as the NV43, the 6600 series is more budget-friendly than the high-end 6800 Ultras and GT's, but that may not matter much when the supply can't meet the demand. 6800 series cards were priced to flow at around US$399 for most GTs, and $499 for the Ultras. If you manage to get your hands on one, you may end up paying much more than that. Yesterday, for example, NewEgg received a small shipment of eVGA 6800 Ultra, which they sold in a flurry for $590. Some Ultras go for $700 on eBay, but I digress.

NVIDIA has dubbed the NV43 as the "Doom 3 GPU," looking to cash in on the company's recent benchmarking success in, you guessed it, Doom 3. The cheaper, "half-the-pipeline of the NV40" 6600 series is priced in the comfy $150-$200 range (standard and GT editions, respectively), making them rather friendly to the gamer who hath not much gold. Second, he who hath much gold but without a way to get a 6800 Ultra might just dabble in SLI, provided he has a PCI Express motherboard and will opt for the more expensive GT modelthe only 6600 model that supports SLI. Of course, if you can afford a motherboard with two X16 PCI Express slots right now, chances are you aren't looking for a mainstream video card.

The pipeline has been chopped in half from the 6800 series, down to 8 from 16. Additionally, the 6600 goes with 128-bit memory bus, as opposed to the 256-bit beast married to the 6800 line. The 6600 GT at least sports DDR3, but the $150 model is DDR1. Nevertheless, NVIDIA tells us that the 6600GT will front 56 frames-per-second at High Quality 1024x768 4xAA and 8x Anisotropic filtering in Doom 3, putting it (according to unverified, but theoretically sound tests) far in front of the ATI Radeon X600 XT. Of course, you could buy the X600 XT at the end of July, whereas the 6600 GT will probably not see the light of day until October. Additionally, nothing was disclosed about the system specs of the test machines.

The 6600 and 6600GT will ship first in PCI Express models, later to be followed by AGP versions.

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Ken Fisher
Ken is the founder & Editor-in-Chief of Ars Technica. A veteran of the IT industry and a scholar of antiquity, Ken studies the emergence of intellectual property regimes and their effects on culture and innovation. Emailken@arstechnica.com//Twitter@kenfisher